From a press release by the Iowa Policy Project, a Council member organization:
Potential impacts on water quantity, water quality, recreation and tourism have prompted necessary questions about the mining of Iowa sand for fracking, researchers say.
In a new report for the nonpartisan Iowa Policy Project (IPP), researchers Aaron Kline and David Osterberg point out the environmental and aesthetic assets of Northeast Iowa may be threatened by the growing attraction of the area for this specialty sand mining.
“Trout fishing enthusiasts should be worried — but so should anyone who drinks water in the northeastern corner of Iowa. And they are,” said Osterberg, founding director and an environment and energy researcher at IPP. “Local leaders in Winneshiek and Allamakee counties have questions, and given the potential long-term impacts of this mining industry, they deserve answers.”
The new report notes the so-called “frac sand” mining industry swept through Wisconsin in recent years, and areas of both southeastern Minnesota and northeastern Iowa have deposits of the same kind of sand sought by the hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” industry.
Iowa Environmental Council Blog 